David Foster Wallace

After reading David Foster Wallace’s Kenyon College speech, I consider it to be one of the best pieces of work I have come across. I like how Foster uses his own personal observation and experience to relay his message, which all commencement speeches should follow, rather than telling over-used stories with a moral lesson. This speech basically summarizes how I think on a daily basis; therefore, I am relieved that I am not the only one.

At one point in the piece, Foster discusses the reality of adult life. He adds “…I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I’m operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the centre of the world.” I agree strongly with Foster’s argument that adult life is routine. For example, every day I wake up, go to class, go to practice, go eat, return for another practice, go eat, do homework, go to sleep, and start over the next day. However, he continues saying that college students are unaware of the “day in day out” lifestyle, which scares me for the future. Yet, I try to enjoy my young years as much as possible because I know that when I have a career, I am basically stuck doing the same thing for the rest of my life.

He then relates the “day in day out” lifestyle to his own experiences in the grocery store. He explains how many of us tend to think about ourselves only. We want the world to run our way in order for it to be perfect. Yet, if everyone thinks that way, we will get nowhere. I consider his main point in that argument is to consider others as well. He encourages us to look at things differently, and for us to learn how to pay attention to the other opportunities, which I feel we should all live by.

I consider this piece to have several similarities to Freire’s “Banking” Concept of Education. They both reiterate that we need to rely on our educations to be successful. However, I think more people would be able to relate to Foster because he tells us that we should not be self centered. He repeats that we never know what someone else is going through; therefore, we should consider all of the options. As a result, I believe Foster’s piece is the greatest advice we can live by because an education can only take us so far.